This is the first meeting between these two teams. Villanova is the defending FCS Champion and since the return of their all-purp star Matt Szczur have again been acting like it. Szczur had 3 rushing, 1 passing & 1 receiving TD vs Appalachian St. The Wildcats led #1 seed App St 28-10 at half and never led by less then 11 but were outgained 461-449. Eastern Washington led North Dakota St 14-0 in the 1Q and RB Taiwan Jones had 203 of his career high 230 yds in the 1H but suffered a fracture in his foot in the 2H. EW allowed a pick-6 in the 3Q that allowed NDSU to tie it at 24 and fell behind 31-24 in the 4Q. EW need a TD with :23 left to force OT. They scored a TD on their first play and recoverd a NDSU fumble in the EZ for the win. EW is 7-0 on their new Red turf this year. However they will be without RB Jones who is 2nd in the FCS with 1,742 (7.9, 14 TD) here and his 2 back-ups are true frosh Mario Brown (216, 3.5, 1 TD) and JR Darriell Beaumonte (216, 2.7, 2 TD). The Eagles are led by former SMU transfer QB Bo Levi Mitchell, who is avg 223 ypg (57.5%) with a 30-14 ratio. EW is only outgaining opp 402-387 on the season. Villanova in their last 3 games have defeated #1 Delaware, #3 Stephen F. Austin and #1 App St. QB Chris Whitney is avg 165 ypg (66%) with a 22-5 ratio and is the #2 rusher with 584 (3.7, 11 TD). They are led by RB’s Aaron Ball (776, 4.9, 5 TD) and Angelo Babbaro (486, 4.9, 5 TD). While WR Szczur has 332 (6.1, 3 TD) in just 7 games. They are holding opp to just 318 ypg. Without RB Jones the Eagles will need some red turf magic to win here and I’ll call for Villanova with playmaker Szczur to return to the Championship game.

The series is tied 2-2 and 1-1 in playoff games, while the home team has won the last 2, incl their last meeting in ‘02, when Delaware won here 22-19. Georgia Southern won the last playoff meeting in the 2000 Semi-finals 27-18. GSU has won 6 straight games including 2 straight playoff games on the road. However, LW vs Wofford they were out FD’d 19-14 and outgained 343-246 but scored 2 TD’s in the 1Q off Wofford TO’s and led 17-0 in the 2Q before needing to hold on 23-20. Meanwhile Delaware’s, defense shutdown New Hampshire allowing them over 20 yds on just 3 of their 13 drives. UD had a 23-15 FD & 383-237 yd edge and had a 5:36 drive to the NH 12 to run down the clock before turning it over on downs with :06 left. GSU is led by former Georgia Tech transfer QB Jaybo Shaw who is avg just 84 ypg (52%) with a 5-4 ratio but is the #2 rusher with 504 (2.6, 16 TD). They have 6 players with 250+ yds rushled by RB Robert Brown with 955 (4.8, 6 TD) and as a team are avg 4.6 ypc. They are outgaining opp by a 349-285 ypg. The Blue Hens are led by former Penn St transfer QB Pat Devlin, who is avg 223 ypg (68%) with an outstanding 20-2 ratio along with 113 rush yds (1.7, 1 TD). UD has 3 players with 300+ rush yds led by RB Andrew Pierce with 1,327 (4.8, 13 TD). UD has outgained opp 407-275 ypg and are allowing just 99.8 ypg rushing (3.4) and 5 rush TD’s in 13 games. I will call for the Blue Hens to outscore the Eagles and return to the FCS Championship Game for the 2nd time in 4 years.